Discord will start rolling out age verification worldwide in March

Discord says it’ll begin rolling out age verification for both new and existing accounts starting in March. If an account can’t verify its age, Discord will limit it to a more “teen-appropriate” experience, which mostly means fewer ways to access sensitive content and certain community features.

According to the official announcement, age checks will happen through facial age estimation or by submitting verification to Discord’s “vendor partners.” Discord also says video selfies used for age estimation won’t leave a user’s device, and that identity documents submitted to partners are deleted quickly, usually right after age confirmation. Discord’s push for age verification is almost certainly driven by legal obligations, not something it wants to do on its own.

This isn’t Discord’s first run at age-gating. Similar restrictions already rolled out in the UK and Australia following new laws, and those earlier systems drew attention after users found ways to dodge the checks and after a vendor partner was hacked, exposing personal info. Discord’s global head of product policy Savannah Badalich also acknowledged to The Verge that people will likely try to get around the new checks, and said the company will keep trying to plug holes.

If you don’t successfully verify your age, Discord says you’ll run into limits like these:

• Sensitive content stays blurred, and you can’t turn that filter off unless you’re verified as an adult.
• Adult-only channels, servers, and app commands are blocked unless you’re verified as an adult.
• DMs from people you don’t know go into a separate request inbox by default, and only verified adults can change that setting.
• Friend requests from strangers come with warning prompts.
• Only verified adults can speak on Stage in servers.

It’s a big change for a platform that’s basically become the default hangout spot for a lot of game communities, from indie dev servers to publisher announcements.